Canadian Office Furniture

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Introduction While design innovation in the Canadian household furniture industry declined in the late 1950s and 1960s, the office furniture industry increased its investment in design and product development. The last fifteen years has seen major consolidation - Artopex absorbed BNI International and Tec Innovations; Teknion purchased Squirewood, Leif Jacobsen and Roy and Breton; other companies bought new plants or expanded old ones. This strategy has resulted in the office sector outperforming the household sector in the past few years. (Readers should interpret the figures below carefully, as the Canadian office furniture sector uses a larger proportion of imported components in its "production" than does the household furniture sector.)

Canadian Office and Household Shipments in millions of dollars

1950s-1960s Trendsetters Three office furniture pioneers in Canada during this time set design trends. Robin Bush designed "Prismasteel" in 1958 for Canadian Office and School Furniture; Jacques Guillon and his team designed the Alumna office desk (see below) with a patented slotted-leg extrusion in 1961 for Art Woodwork; Doug Ball, who had designed and engineered several early office panel-based "systems," first introduced the use of post-and-beam design in 1978, with his Race System for Sunar in Montreal, which is still produced today by the US manufacturer Haworth.

Art Woodwork - Alumna desk, 1961 (Jacques Gillion and Associates)

Current Trends Investment in the office sector has also seen the introduction of environmental programs (often lacking in the household sector) and eco-friendly powder coating to reduce solvent emission. Research continues in the ergonomics of the office, resulting in better workstation and adjustable chair design (see sidebar for links). Architects committed to the LEED program use their influence with clients to promote green furnishings. And, to give credit where it is due, the Canadian industry is also responding to the environmental commitment made by US manufacturers Herman Miller, Knoll and others.

Nienkamper - Vox Office (Mark Müller)

Design Investment The most impressive investment Canada has made is in design and designers for this sector, whether hiring an in-house team or using Canadian or international freelance designers. Listed below are Canadian office furniture manufacturers working with Canadian designers.


Canadian Manufacturers, Designers and Products [3]

Company	Designer/s	Product



Allseating	Miles Keller	Os chair

Artopex	Charles Godbout and Luc Plante	Elasto chair

Global Contract	In-house design team	All products

Keilhauer	Brent Cordner	Felt chair

	Tom Deacon	Also, Calais, Chatam, Croft, Danforth, Deacon, Elgin, Fin, Franklin, Junior, Kipling, Simcoe, Soho, Tom, Two Woods chairs

	Patty Johnson	Turn table

	Andrew Jones	Delmonico, Ripple and Woodrow chairs, Gym table and chair

	Scot Laughton	Laughton Series: Bridge, Canal, Grand

	Derek McLeod	Flit chair

	Gord Peteran and Kathleen Wicks	Baldwin, Brooklyn and Manor chairs

Krug	Tom Deacon	Griffin chair

	Christopher Wright	Vestrada storage units

Nienkämper	Johnson Chou	Elevation bench, Workplaysleep.01 sofa

	Paul Epp	Epp chair

	Charles Godbout and Luc Plante	Folder and Opera tables

	Scot Laughton	Tufold table

	Mark Müller	Max chair, table and bench, Parabola and Precedent workstations, Tangent shelves, Turin table, Vox: Office, Collections, Tables

	Klaus Nienkamper	Ambassador table

	Karim Rashid	Kurve chair, Wavelength seating

	Dean Shalden	Shalden table

	Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe	HAB chair

	George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg	Carlisle chair, Jester and Virso tables

Teknion	In-house design team	All products